http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-12/assad-lays-down-his-conditions-deal-depends-us-stopping-aid-terrorists
( Assad feels pretty good as to where things stand presently.... )
Assad Lays Down His Conditions: "US Must Stop Aiding Terrorists", Israel Disposing Of WMDs; Accuses Saudi, Qatar And Turkey
It was only a matter of time before Syria's Assad, emboldened by Obama's recent backtracking and confident he has all the leverage and momentum, started laying down his own conditions. And here they are, as perRIA and Interfax citing an interview with Assad to air in its entirety later today on Rossia 24 TV:
- ASSAD CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO DISPOSE OF WMD (!)
- ASSAD: 'REBELS MAY USE CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST ISRAEL AS PROVOCATION'
- ASSAD SAYS CHEMICAL ARMS DEAL DEPENDS ON US STOPPING AID TO TERRORISTS
- ASSAD SAYS WILL COMPLETE DEAL ONLY IF US STOPS "POLICY OF THREATS"
- ASSAD ACCUSES TURKEY, SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR OF SUPPORTING TERRORISTS IN SYRIA
- ASSAD EXPECTS TO START HANDING OVER INFO ON CHEMICAL WEAPONS ONE MONTH AFTER JOINING OPCW
- ASSAD: 'ANY WAR AGAINST SYRIA WILL BECOME A WAR THAT WILL DESTROY THE WHOLE REGION'
- ASSAD: 'NO COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, PRIMARILY ISRAEL, SHOULD HAVE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION'
- SYRIA TO SEND DOCUMENTS TO UN, CHEMICAL WEAPONS GROUP SOON
- ASSAD SAYS IMPLEMENTATION OF DEAL MAY TAKE A MONTH OR MORE
If at all. And now, his bluff called, we go back to Barack Obama penning his Pravda Op-Ed.
and....
and.....
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/09/13/Syria-says-it-is-now-full-member-of-anti-chemical-weapons-treaty.html
and....
Assad: We’ll start handing over our chemical weapons when the U.S. stops arming Syria’s rebels
POSTED AT 2:01 PM ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
I … don’t remember this being part of the offer.
Obama had better run it past Putin right away to see how he wants the U.S. to respond.
Syria will fulfil an initiative to hand over its chemical weapons only when the United States stops threatening to strike Syria, RIA news agency quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying in a television interview…“When we see the United States really wants stability in our region and stops threatening, striving to attack, and also ceases arms deliveries to terrorists, then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalized,” he was quoted as saying in an interview with Russian state television.
He said that in an interview with Russian state television, naturally. Putin told reporters on Monday that the White House must withdraw its threat of an attack on Syria as a preconditionto launching the big face-saving weapons inspections charade at the UN but, unless I missed it, said nothing about the rebels. Now here’s Assad upping the ante on the same day that U.S. papers are announcing that American weapons shipments to the rebels have begun. There’s no way Obama will agree to it, needless to say. He accepted the UN deal because it preserved more of his credibility than a landslide defeat in Congress would have, but the more Putin humiliates him and the more demands are placed by Russian and Syrian on the U.S. to preemptively neuter its military options, the more O’s credibility calculus will change. At some point here, continuing this pattycake session with the Kremlin and their degenerate client in Syria will cost him more political capital than simply going ahead and bombing will.
That makes me wonder what the angle is to what Assad said here. Obviously he wants to drag out negotiations at the UN, but the U.S. isn’t going to haggle over a demand that they withdraw completely from the battlefield in Syria. If Assad insists on it, negotiations will collapse quickly and then we’re back to the bombing scenario. Maybe this is more of a rhetorical play to get western media to pay extra attention to the rebels and their relationship with the U.S. If Assad can make this a key point of debate at the UN, he can do damage to the White House even if he’s prepared to eventually drop the demand. The media is filled with stories lately about how radical the rebels are: Mike McCaul said just yesterday that at least 50 percent of them are “bad guys” and Mother Jones is out with a piece this morning exploring how lax the controls are among the “moderate” rebels in keeping U.S. aid away from jihadis. Then there’s this, via the Daily Caller, from an expert who spent time with the rebels in Syria:
“The ‘moderate’ force which we are told about supposedly consists of those rebel brigades aligned with the Supreme Military Command, of Major-General Salim Edriss,” he continued. ”Most of the units aligned with the SMC actually come from a 20-unit strong bloc called the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front. This includes some powerful brigades, such as Liwa al-Islam in the Damascus area, Liwa al Farouq and Liwa al Tawhid. These and the overwhelming majority of the units aligned with the SMC are Islamist formations, who adhere to a Muslim Brotherhood-type outlook.”…“I spent some time with the Tawhid Brigade in Aleppo city at the height of the fighting there,” Spyer said. ” I interviewed one of the leaders of the brigade. I’ve been in the Middle East for a long time and have worked on these issues for a long time. This was an Islamist fighting force, adhering to an Islamist ideology. So even those forces nominally aligned with western supported bodies are themselves overwhelmingly Islamist in outlook (there may be a very small and marginal number of forces who are ostensibly secular, but these are of no military significance). It’s my contention that the real power in the rebellion lies not in the external structures, but among the commanders of the major fighting groups. These men are Islamists.”
Having Russia and Syria make a big stink at the UN about the rebels being “terrorists” who shouldn’t be supplied with arms will spur more coverage like that, which will drive support in the U.S. for intervening in Syria even lower. That doesn’t mean the White House will agree to shut the weapons pipeline to Assad’s enemies — at this point, simple credibility demands that it stay open — but it can make life even tougher for O.
By the way, in some precincts of the Obama-admiring media today, the Russian denouement is being treated as a big win. No foolin’.
Update: Ed suggests this as a video complement to the post.
and.....
“This is not a game”: Kerry rejects Assad’s timeline for WMD compliance at meeting with Russian foreign minister
POSTED AT 5:21 PM ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
But … it is a game. That’s the whole point. If the White House takes this disarmament charade seriously at the UN with demands that Assad turn over his arsenal expeditiously and verifiably, it’s going to put Obama right back in the war box the way Ryan Lizza described this morning. Russia’s proposal is attractive to him because it’s a charade, because it can be slow-walked and fudged at the UN while Congress and the American public gradually forget about Syria. To turn this from kabuki into a semi-serious process defeats the purpose.
Granted, Kerry has no choice but to talk tough while people are still paying attention, but it sounds like they mean business on compliance. Which, as I say, means more headaches for O to come, not less.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is rejecting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s suggestion Thursday that he begin submitting data on his chemical weapons arsenal one month after signing an international chemical weapons ban.Speaking at a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kerry noted that Assad said a 30-day lead time would be standard.“There is nothing standard about this process,” Kerry said, because Assad has used his chemical weapons.“The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough.”
Empty rhetoric? Maybe not:
American officials said they were planning a series of early tests to determine if the Russian government, and, more important, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, were serious about accepting international control of Syria’s huge chemical arsenal…One test of Mr. Assad’s sincerity will be the willingness of Russia and Syria to accept “a rapid beginning to international control” that would preclude the Assad government from gaining access to chemical weapons or using them, said a senior State Department official who was traveling on Mr. Kerry’s plane…“There are some specific things that we can ask for, and see if they get delivered very quickly, that will give us an early sense of whether there is reality here or not,” said the State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under department protocols.
If Assad tells them to get lost, then what? O’s surely not going back to Congress; proof that Syria’s disarmament is a sham might win him some extra votes, but he’s in such a deep hole with both Democrats and Republicans that he might still not get to 218. I think the plan, such as it is, is to bomb Assad straightaway if he doesn’t comply, without congressional approval, on the theory that the public will be a little more tolerant of a new war if it looks like Assad and Putin are jerking the UN around. That would also explain the oddly belligerent tone to Obama’s speech on Tuesday night even though, ostensibly, it was all about how we *shouldn’t* attack right now. Maybe he’s concluded that the only way to get back some credibility is to hit Assad anyway, and the UN stuff is just a prelude designed to build a bit of extra moral authority for doing so. The fact that he tried a last resort to diplomacy and it went nowhere because Assad’s a liar will be presented as a game-changing fact by his spin team which requires an immediate response by the commander-in-chief, without waiting for approval from Congress.
Then again, pay attention to what Kerry says at the very end here about how he thinks there’s a way for Assad to disarm even in the middle of a civil war. Er, no, there isn’t, not without either a ceasefire or lots and lots of boots on the ground, neither of which is happening. Either he has some cockamamie plan for handling WMD to offer Assad which he knows won’t work, which means an attack is coming down the road, or he’s going to pretend that the plan is working and then look the other way when it fails, which would mean O’s still intending to play along with this charade. Can’t wait to find out which it is.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/09/13/Syria-says-it-is-now-full-member-of-anti-chemical-weapons-treaty.html
“Legally speaking Syria has become, starting today, a full member of the (chemical weapons) convention,” Jaafari told reporters in New York after submitting relevant documents to the United Nations.
He said President Bashar al-Assad signed a legislative decree on Thursday that “declared the Syrian Arab Republic approval to accede to the convention” and that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem had written to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to notify it of Syria's decision to join the convention.
“The chemical weapons in Syria are a mere deterrence against the Israeli nuclear arsenal,” Jaafari said as he waved a document he said was a CIA report on Israel's chemical weapons program.
“It's a deterrent weapon and now the time has come for the Syrian government to join the (convention) as a gesture to show our willingness to be against all weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
He said President Bashar al-Assad signed a legislative decree on Thursday that “declared the Syrian Arab Republic approval to accede to the convention” and that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem had written to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to notify it of Syria's decision to join the convention.
“The chemical weapons in Syria are a mere deterrence against the Israeli nuclear arsenal,” Jaafari said as he waved a document he said was a CIA report on Israel's chemical weapons program.
“It's a deterrent weapon and now the time has come for the Syrian government to join the (convention) as a gesture to show our willingness to be against all weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
But a U.N. official was quoted by Reuters as saying that Syria needs to take a “a few more steps” before it becomes a signatory of the treaty.
Syria was one of only seven countries not to have joined the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which commits members to destroying their stockpiles.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-12/white-house-proclaims-exceptional-obama-deserves-credit-any-syrian-deal
( You would think the White House would learn ....the more the White House takes credit for this syrian deal , the less likely they will be to walk away ........ )
White House Proclaims "Exceptional" Obama Deserves Credit For Any Syrian Deal
It will likely come as no surprise but the political one-up-manship continues as the Obama White House try to rescue themselves from a face-melting Putin Op-Ed... As Politico reports, WH press secretary Jay Carney stated: “If we were to see a situation unfold where Assad were to give up his chemical weapons to international supervision that would be anenormous accomplishment ... would be due to the decisions made by the Russian leadership but also the decisions made by the United States, by the president, to take the approach he has taken in response to the horrifying use of chemical weapons on his own people." Feeling the need to make one more jab at the Russians, Carney added, "The United States, in part because it is an exceptional nation, is called upon the lead in situations like this." Indeed, that's what it felt like eh? Under control the whole time...
President Barack Obama would deserve some credit if the Syrian crisis is ultimately resolved with the Assad regime relinquishing its chemical weapons, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday.“If we were to see a situation unfold where Assad were to give up his chemical weapons to international supervision that would be an enormous accomplishment and it would represent a wholesale change to where Syria and Russia were … three weeks ago,” Carney said.“That would be due to the decisions made by the Russian leadership but also the decisions made by the United States, by the president, to take the approach he has taken in response to the horrifying use of chemical weapons on his own people.”...Carney didn’t respond directly when asked if the prestige and credibility of the United States is also on the line.“The United States, in part because it is an exceptional nation, is called upon the lead in situations like this,” Carney said. “That is what this president and this country has been doing.”
Naturally, should the military standoff re-escalate, and lead to all out war, dragging in Japan, Europe, the middle east, and China, we doubt Obama will be quite as enthused in taking credit for starting World War III...
http://rt.com/news/kerry-lavrov-syria-talks-787/
Russia-US talks on Syria have kicked off in Geneva with FM Lavrov saying a military strike is unneeded once Damascus agreed to put its chemical weapons under international control, and Secretary Kerry insisting “words are not enough.”
“I am sure that our American partners, as President Obama earlier said, firmly prefer a peaceful solution to the Syrian chemical weapon problem,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva, ahead of their talks.
These new developments on Syria make it possible to call new talks, the so-called “Geneva-2” peace conference, to find a solution to the ongoing war, Lavrov said.
The US, however, still has doubts that Syria is ready to give up its chemical weapons stockpile, Kerry said. President Assad has 10 days to join the international chemical weapons ban treaty, he added.
Kerry said that during his talks with Lavrov he would try to find out whether it is possible to put Syrian WMD under the supervision of international organizations, and to eventually get them out of the country and ensure their destruction.
Earlier in the day, the UN said that it received a letter from Syria confirming the country’s intention to join the treaty banning the production of chemical arms, their stockpiling and use.
The Syrian government’s letter of accession is being translated, AP cited UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq as saying. Signing the letter accession begins the process for a country to become party to the international agreement, the official said.
Kerry rejected as not quick enough Assad’s proposal to begin submitting data on the Syrian chemical weapons within a month of signing the Chemical Weapons Convention, given the circumstances of last month’s poison gas attack.
Earlier Thursday, in an interview with a Russian TV channel, the Syrian leader described his proposal as “a standard procedure.”
“There is nothing standard about this process” because Assad has used his chemical weapons, Kerry told the news conference. “The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough.”
“This is not a game,” he said, adding that the decision on the chemical weapons transfer had to be“comprehensive, verifiable and also, implemented in a timely fashion.”
He added that the US would go ahead with its earlier plan to launch a “limited” military strike against Syria if Damascus doesn't agree to dismantle its chemical arsenal properly.
"There ought to be consequences if it doesn't take place," AP reported Kerry as saying.
Both diplomats seemed to be rather optimistic ahead of the talks. Lavrov, wrapping up the speech at the media conference, expressed hope that a compromise may be reached.
“I’m glad that John Kerry in his comprehensive presentation of the American position has also confirmed his determination to seeking a compromise,” he said. “If we follow that rule, I hope we will reach a result.”
“I lost the last paragraph,” Kerry said, asking for the translation of the final piece of Lavrov’s speech to be passed to him. “It was ok John, don’t’ worry,” Lavrov responded, causing laughter in the conference hall. On this positive note the two diplomats left for the talks.
Kerry and Lavrov, accompanied by delegations of experts, are going to discuss Russia’s proposal for Damascus to put its chemical weapons under international control and to join the Chemical Weapons Convention. Syria has accepted the proposal.
Desperation on the part of syrian rebels and their sponsors.......
Assad forces said to use poison gas in new Damascus attack
Rebel sources say Thursday strike occurred in Jobar neighborhood; ‘UN report to indicate Assad behind Aug. 21 chemical attacks’
A young man receiving medical treatment after what Syrian rebels claimed Thursday was a chemical weapons attack in Damascus's Jobar neighborhood. (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)
The report was based on rebel sources, who said the attack took place in the Jobar neighborhood of the capital. The rebel sources said they could not tell what kind of chemical weaponry had been used, but that it was a poison gas of some kind, and was causing injuries, including breathing difficulties.
Footage posted to YouTube, and broadcast on Al Arabiya TV, showed a young man having trouble breathing, and receiving medical treatment. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
The news broke amid word that a United Nations investigative team has amassed a “wealth” of evidence indicating that Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible for the chemical attack that took place on August 21, killing as many 1,400 people.
Foreign Policy magazine reported that the investigators will present their findings on Monday to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and will offer strong circumstantial evidence that government forces were responsible for the deadly attack. The report, quoting an unnamed senior Western official, is based on the team’s examination of spent rocket casings, ammunition, and soil, blood, and urine samples. It will stop short of directly accusing Assad of perpetrating the attack on his own people.
The investigators have “gotten very rich samples — biomedical and environmental — and they have interviewed victims, doctors and nurses,” the official was quoted as saying, adding that “they are very happy with the wealth of evidence they got.”
US officials expected the report to confirm US allegations that sarin gas was used in the attack.
The UN delegation consisted of 20 members and was led by Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom. They arrived in Syria on August 18 to investigate allegations that Syrian President Bashar Assad had employed chemical weapons in earlier attacks.
In June, US President Barack Obama said he had “conclusive evidence” that Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons used in those earlier attacks.
Three days after the delegation arrived in Damascus, the large chemical attack was launched, allegedly by government forces. Several days later, on August 26, the investigative team came under sniper fire when it arrived at the scene of the attack to conduct an examination.
One of the UN vehicles was damaged, but nobody was injured by the gunfire.
The team left Syria on August 31.
Assad has all along denied responsibility for the alleged chemical weapons attacks, claiming that opposition forces were behind them all.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad’s key ally, wrote in an op-ed piece published Wednesday that “no one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons.”
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry, in an apparent offhand remark, suggested that direct US military intervention could be averted if Syria agreed to place all of its chemical weapons under international control. Russia, which has long been an ally of the Assad regime, pitched the idea to Syria, whose foreign minister, Walid Moallem, welcomed the proposal.
The initiative prompted Obama to announce that he would be putting on the back burner plans to appeal to US lawmakers for approval for a military strike.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/u-s-military-confirms-rebels-had-sarin/#B3p8IiMxlyQRKG3v.03
( Despite their statements to the contrary , J Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama must be aware of the Syria Rebels chemical weapon capabilities and suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria ... after all , the US military knows these facts...So , why the desperate lies to start a War ? )
As part of the Obama administration’s repeated insistence – though without offering proof – that the recent sarin gas attack near Damascus was the work of the Assad regime, the administration has downplayed or denied the possibility that al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels could produce deadly chemical weapons.
However, in a classified document just obtained by WND, the U.S. military confirms that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel Islamists fighting in Syria.
The document says sarin from al-Qaida in Iraq made its way into Turkey and that while some was seized, more could have been used in an attack last March on civilians and Syrian military soldiers in Aleppo.
The document, classified Secret/Noforn – “Not for foreign distribution” – came from the U.S. intelligence community’s National Ground Intelligence Center, or NGIC, and was made available to WND Tuesday.
It revealed that AQI had produced a “bench-scale” form of sarin in Iraq and then transferred it to Turkey.
A U.S. military source said there were a number of interrogations as well as some clan reports as part of what the document said were “50 general indicators to monitor progress and characterize the state of the ANF/AQI-associated Sarin chemical warfare agent developing effort.”
“This (document) depicts our assessment of the status of effort at its peak – primarily research and procurement activities – when disrupted in late May 2013 with the arrest of several key individuals in Iraq and Turkey,” the document said.
“Future reporting of indicators not previously observed would suggest that the effort continues to advance despite the arrests,” the NGIC document said.
The May 2013 seizure occurred when Turkish security forces discovered a two-kilogram cylinder with sarin gas while searching homes of Syrian militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra Front following their initial detention.
The sarin gas was found in the homes of suspected Syrian Islamic radicals detained in the southern provinces of Adana and Mersia.
Some 12 suspected members of the al-Nusra Front were arrested. At the time, they were described by Turkish special anti-terror forces as the “most aggressive and successful arm” of the Syrian rebels.
In the seizure, Turkish anti-terror police also found a cache of weapons, documents and digital data.
At the time of the arrest, the Russians called for a thorough investigation of the detained Syrian militants found in possession of sarin gas.
This seizure followed a chemical weapons attack in March on the Khan al-Assal area of rural Aleppo, Syria. In that attack, some 26 people and Syrian government forces were killed by what was determined to be sarin gas, delivered by a rocket attack.
The Syrian government called for an investigation by the United Nations. Damascus claimed al-Qaida fighters were behind the attack, also alleging that Turkey was involved.
“The rocket came from a place controlled by the terrorists and which is located close to the Turkish territory,” according to a statement from Damascus. “One can assume that the weapon came from Turkey.”
The report of the U.S. intelligence community’s NGIC reinforces a preliminary U.N. investigation of the attack in Aleppo which said the evidence pointed to Syrian rebels.
It also appears to bolster allegations in a 100-page report on an investigation turned over to the U.N. by Russia. The report concluded the Syrian rebels – not the Syrian government – had used the nerve agent sarin in the March chemical weapons attack in Aleppo.
While the contents of the report have yet to be released, sources tell WND the documentation indicates that deadly sarin poison gas was manufactured in a Sunni-controlled region of Iraq and then transported to Turkey for use by the Syrian opposition, whose ranks have swelled with members of al-Qaida and affiliated groups.
The documentation that the U.N. received from the Russians indicated specifically that the sarin gas was supplied to Sunni foreign fighters by a Saddam-era general working under the outlawed Iraqi Baath party leader, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
Al-Douri was a top aide to Saddam Hussein before he was deposed as Iraqi president.
The sarin nerve gas used in the Allepo attack, sources say, had been prepared by former Iraqi Military Industries Brig. Gen. Adnan al-Dulaimi. It then was supplied to Baath-affiliated foreign fighters of the Sunni and Saudi Arabian-backed al-Nusra Front in Aleppo, with Turkey’s cooperation, through the Turkish town of Antakya in Hatay Province.
The source who brought out the documentation now in the hands of the U.N. is said to have been an aide to al-Douri.
Al-Dulaimi was a major player in Saddam’s chemical weapons production projects, the former aide said. Moreover, Al-Dulaimi has been working in the Sunni-controlled region of northwestern Iraq where the outlawed Baath party now is located and produces the sarin.
The NGIC depiction of the variety of sarin as “bench-scale” reinforces an analysis by terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, who said the recent findings on the chemical weapons attack of Aug. 21 on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, was “indeed a self-inflicted attack” by the Syrian opposition to provoke U.S. and military intervention in Syria.
Bodansky, a former director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, said a preliminary analysis of the sarin showed that it was of a “kitchen” variety and not military grade.
He questioned that the sarin was of a military variety, which accumulates around victims’ hair and loose clothing.
Because these molecules become detached and released with any movement, Bodansky said, “they would have thus killed or injured the first responders who touched the victims’ bodies without protective clothes … and masks.”
Various videos of the incident clearly show first responders going from patient to patient without protective clothing administering first aid to the victims. There were no reports of casualties among the first responders.
“This strongly indicates that the agent in question was the slow acting ‘kitchen sarin,’” Bodansky said.
“Indeed, other descriptions of injuries treated by MSF (The French group Doctors Without Borders) – suffocation, foaming, vomiting and diarrhea – agree with the effects of diluted, late-action drops of liquefied Sarin,” he said.
The terrorism expert said that the jihadist movement has technologies which have been confirmed in captured jihadist labs in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as from the wealth of data recovered from al-Qaida in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.
He added that the projectiles shown by the opposition, which were tested by U.N. inspectors, are not standard weapons of the Syrian army.
Meanwhile, an Italian former journalist and a Belgian researcher who were recently freed from their al-Nusra captives say they overheard their captors talking about their involvement in a deadly chemical attack “last month,” which would have been the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack.
The Italian, Domenico Quirico, and Belgian researcher Pierre Piccinin were released Monday after five months of captivity.
“The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use Sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said.
While captive, Piccinin said the two had overheard a Skype conversation in English among three people.
“The conversation was based on real facts,” said Quirico, claiming one of the three people in the alleged conversation identified himself as a Free Syrian Army general.
He added that the militants said the rebels carried out the attack as a provocation to force the West to intervene militarily to oust the Assad regime.
Both men told a news conference they had no access to the outside world while they were held captive and knew nothing about the use of chemical weapons until they heard the discussion on Skype.
Now, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, Ray McGovern, similarly backs the claim that the Syrian rebels perpetrated the poison gas attack on Aug. 21
McGovern was one of a number of veteran intelligence professionals who recently signed a letter to Obama saying that Damascus wasn’t behind the Aug. 21 chemical attack.
As WND recently reported, former U.S. intelligence analysts claim current intelligence analysts have told them Assad was not responsible for the Aug. 21 poison gas attack, saying there was a “growing body of evidence” that reveals the incident was a pre-planned provocation by the Syrian opposition.
The analysts, in an open letter to Obama, referred to a meeting a week before the Aug. 21 incident in which opposition military commanders ordered preparations for an “imminent escalation” due to a “war-changing development” that would be followed by the U.S.-led bombing of Syria. They said the growing body of evidence came mostly from sources affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its supporters.
Those reports, they said, revealed that canisters containing chemical agents were brought into a suburb of Damascus, where they were then opened.
“Initial meetings between senior opposition military commanders and Qatari, Turkish and U.S. intelligence officials took place at the converted Turkish military garrison in Antakya, Hatay Province, now used as the command center and headquarters of the Free Syrian Army and their foreign sponsors,” the analysts said.
The VIPS memo to Obama reinforces separate videos, which show foreign fighters associated with the Syrian opposition firing artillery canisters of poison gas. One video shows Nadee Baloosh, a member of an al-Qaida-affiliated group Rioyadh al-Abdeen, admitting to the use of chemical weapons.
In the video clip, al-Abdeen, who is in the Latakia area of Syria, said his forces used “chemicalswhich produce lethal and deadly gases that I possess.”
http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/kerrys-student-spinner-fired-after-wnd-report/
( Again , why the desperation from John Kerry and John McCain to find any slim reed to support their blood lust for War ? )
Five days after WND first broke the news that the strategy by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Secretary of State John F. Kerry to cast members of the Free Syria Army as “moderates” among the Syrian rebel forces was the brain-child of a Wall Street Journal researcher, the analyst has been fired from a Washington think-tank for lying about her qualifications.
As WND reported, Elizabeth O’Bagy, 26, had claimed she was pursuing a Ph.D. in Arab studies and political science at Georgetown University and working on a dissertation on woman’s militancy.
In his Sept. 3 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Kerry cited O’Bagy, arguing that the war in Syria is “not being waged entirely or even predominately by dangerous Islamists and al-Qaida die-hards,” but rather the struggle is being led but “moderate opposition forces – a collection of groups known as the Free Syria Army.”
Kerry was citing an opinion piece O’Bagy wrote for the Wall Street Journal on Aug. 30 titled “On the Front Lines of Syria’s Civil War.” It ran with a tag-line “The conventional wisdom – that jihadists are running the rebellion [in Syria] – is not what I’ve witnessed on the ground.”
O’Bagy, then the Syria team leader at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank, claimed she had submitted and defended her dissertation and Georgetown University would soon confer her degree.
“The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms. Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University,” the Institute for the Study of War said in a statement Wednesday. “ISW has accordingly terminated Ms. O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately.”
Upon learning O’Bagy had been fired from ISW, WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi, who broke the original story, said, “We investigated O’Bagy last week and reported she was a graduate student. I think it was our story that triggered the awareness by the Obama administration and Kerry and McCain that this woman was fraudulently represented herself as a Ph.D.”
He added, “We pointed out she had the associations with the radical Islamic groups that are promoting the Free Syrian Army.”
Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, told Politico, “[W]e were not aware of Elizabeth O’Bagy’s academic claims or credentials when we published her Aug. 31 op-ed, and the op-ed made no reference to them.
“We also were not aware of her affiliation with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, and we published a clarification when we learned of it. We are investigating the contents of her op-ed to the best of our ability, but to date we have seen no evidence to suggest any information in the piece was false.”
Corsi also reported that when McCain when to Iraq, O’Bagy set up interviews and provided him with a Washington operative who was in Syria.
“Basically O’Bagy made fools of them all (Obama, McCain and Kerry),” Corsi said. “They wanted so desperately to go on their theory there was a moderate force in Syria. They jumped on the bandwagon. They didn’t realize she was loading them up with radicals from the Free Syria Army.”
In his investigative piece, Corsi revealed that the O’Bagy narrative is contradicted by intelligence estimates and experts specializing in the region.
After Kerry’s testimony to Congress, Reuters reported: “Secretary of State John Kerry’s public assertions that moderate Syrian opposition groups are growing in influence appear to be at odds with estimates by U.S. and European intelligence sources and non-governmental experts, who say Islamic extremists remain by far the fiercest and best-organized rebel elements.”
On April 27, the New York Times reported that the Jabhat al-Nursa Front, a group declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, has pledged allegiance to al Qaida’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and remains the group of choice for foreign jihadis pouring into Syria. The Ahrar al-Sham, meanwhile, which shares much of al-Nusra’s extremist ideology, is composed mostly of Syrians.
In her capacity as a senior research analyst and the Syria team leader at ISW, O’Bagy authored a report in March titled “The Free Syrian Army” in which she argued as follows:
The opposition movement in Syria has been fragmented from its inception, a direct reflection of Syria’s social complexity and the decentralized grassroots of the uprising. This condition has plagued Syria’s armed opposition since peaceful protestors took up arms and began forming rebel groups under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the summer of 2001.
The narrative has been circulated in Congress in an attempt to counter the recent disclosure of evidence the rebel groups in Syria affiliated with al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood, who have committed atrocities against government soldiers and Syrian civilians, may be the parties responsible for the chemical weapons attacks the Obama administration is blaming on the Assad government.
O’Bagy also works as the political director of the Washington-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, or SETF, chaired by Mohamed Kawam.
Kawam is linked with the Washington-based Syrian Support Group, or SSG, which encourages Americans to send money that arguably could be used to buy weapons for the Free Syria Group.
The “Donate” button on the Syrian Support Group website specifies donations will go toward providing “certain logistical, communications, and other services to the FSA.” The caveat is “the SSG intends to support only those military councils that have adopted the FSA’s Proclamation of Principles,” not the Jabhat al-Nusra or any other group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/11/20438772-jihadis-gain-ground-in-syrian-rebel-movement-as-moderates-grow-desperate?lite
( Looks like " Curveball Two " was wrong after all ... )
ANTAKYA, Turkey — Syrian opposition activists tell NBC News that Bashar Assad is getting away with having used chemical weapons to massacre hundreds of civilians, and that giving the regime a pass will only benefit al-Qaeda extremists.
“If there is no action, everyone will be desperate. We are already desperate. We are dying. Many will join al-Qaeda. Even the educated will join them, because no one else is helping,” a Syrian rebel said.
There is a battle underway within the Syrian revolt -- a war within the war -- between the generally moderate, US-backed Free Syrian Army and Islamic extremist groups.
The Free Syrian Army put its faith in Washington, which promised action, but so far hasn’t delivered. The moderates say they have lost hope and face. Islamists, on the other hand, always doubted Washington would act, and instead of attending meetings, they are putting bullets in their guns; and they are sending men.
Both want to topple Assad, but the end goals are very different: democracy on one side, and an Islamic state on the other.
The mind of the jihadiAbu Abdul Rahman, a 22-year-old from Tunisia, sat in a safe house earlier this week in Antakya -- a southern Turkey town that’s fast becoming a smugglers transit route. He was waiting for a smuggler to take him across the border to fight in Syria.
“Almighty Allah has made Jihad a duty on us. When our Muslim brethren are oppressed, it is a duty to support them wherever they are, because Muslims are not separated by countries,” he said.
Abdul Rahman is one of thousands of al-Qaeda volunteers who are flocking to Syria to join what they see as a battle to defend Muslims no one is bothering to help.
“This was a dream for me, to wage jihad for Allah’s sake, because this is one of the greatest deeds in Islam, to lift aggression off my brothers, to bleed for Allah and no other,” he said.
At the safe house, Abdul Rahman checked his gear in the final hours before the smuggler arrived to collect him. He wasn’t sure what he’d need for the jihad. A college student until dropping out to join the fight, he'd never fought in a war before, never used a gun in anger. He looked somewhat confused as he dug through a plastic bag, going through the camouflage uniform, gloves and thick jacket he bought at an army surplus store. He might be in Syria for months, perhaps years, he said. He’d spent his entire young life in North Africa, and wasn’t sure how cold it gets in the winter.
“As long as there is aggression and until there is an Islamic state, I will stay,” he said.
Not like the moviesAbdul Rahman didn’t look like the cliché image of Islamic militants portrayed in the movies. He was clean shaven, polite and wore the kind of oversized sunglasses you usually see on women. He agreed to let us interview him because he believes he is doing nothing wrong.
After waiting through the afternoon at the safe house, the smuggler finally arrived.
The man helping Abdul Rahman cross the border said he has moved 300 foreign fighters to Syria in the last four months. And he has competition from other smugglers doing the same thing.
Abdul Rahman picked up his plastic bag of war clothing and got into a car. On the way to the Syrian border, he telephoned his mother in Tunisia. She didn’t want him to go and asked him to wait in Turkey, so she could come and say goodbye in person. He lied to her, saying he was already in Syria and it was too late. He hung up the phone and told us if he’d been truthful, his mother would have tried to force him to go home.
“I am happy. People say that by coming here I might die, there is shelling and so forth, but I thank Allah I am happy because I am satisfying my Allah almighty. I did not come for a worldly purpose. I did not come for money. I only came for Allah’s sake and to support my Muslim brothers,” he said.
Abdul Rahman made a few more calls before getting out of the car. He wanted to ensure his contacts from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a radical group aligned with al-Qaeda, would be waiting for him when he crossed the grassy hill separating Turkey from Syria.
He got out of the car and disappeared over a rise, joining a revolution for purposes far beyond toppling Bashar Assad. and....
CIA starts providing weapons to Syrian Rebels - which groups ?
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/09/11/cia-begins-delivering-arms-to-syrian-rebels/
CIA Begins Delivering Arms to Syrian Rebels
On Brink of Diplomatic Deal, US Steps Up Weapons Delivery
by Jason Ditz, September 11, 2013
Having lost the battle for a Congressional authorization for war and now facing a Russian offer of Syrian disarmament as an alternative, all the public signs are that diplomacy is threatening to break out with Syria, and there will be no international intervention.
Behind the scenes, US meddling continues apace in Syria’s civil war, and the CIA has now begun delivering lethal weapons and combat vehicles to rebel factions in hope of turning the tide of the conflict in favor of more nominally pro-US factions.
The US has been threatening the move for months, and has been engaged in intensive training of rebel fighters in neighboring Jordan. The fighters have reportedly begun to cross into Syria, with an eye on attacking the capital city of Damascus.
The State Department has presented the arms as a way to improve not only the fighting ability of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), but its stability as well. The reality, however, is that much of the rebellion remains opposed to the FSA, and that faction will be either buying the loyalty of al-Qaeda fighters with US arms, or fighting against them.
Al Qaeda in action in Syria.....
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/09/11/al-qaeda-seizes-syria-village-kills-12-alawite-civilians/
Al-Qaeda Seizes Syria Village, Kills 12 Alawite Civilians
Rebels Claim Slain Were Pro-Govt
by Jason Ditz, September 11, 2013
Al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusra has captured the village of Maksar al-Hesan today, east of the Syrian city of Homs, and has killed 12 Alawite civilians, according to pro-rebel faction the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The killings were confirmed by another unnamed rebel faction later in the day, though they claimed that the slain civilians were actually “militia” fighters for a pro-government faction.
Attacks in the Homs Province have recently centered around attempts to take over Alawite towns, forcing the religious minority to retreat southward toward Damascus, where the government still holds sway.
Such fighting has typified the sectarian tone of the civil war in recent months, and the prospect that the war’s endgame, with the overall conflict still stalemated, is now centering around sectarian cleansing on both sides, carving out a Sunni dominated northern region, and an Alawite-run south.
and.....
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/09/11/heavy-fighting-continues-in-syrias-christian-town-of-maaloula/
Heavy Fighting Continues in Syria’s Christian town of Maaloula
Nusra Says They Will Withdraw if No Govt Forces Are Allowed In
by Jason Ditz, September 11, 2013
Fighting between Syrian government forces and the al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusracontinues today in the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, with neither side willing to give ground and the remaining Christian population still trapped in a convent.
Nusra forces began contesting the village last week, taking a hill-top hotel and using it as a base from which to shell the surrounding area. The small military post in the town fell over the weekend,and has been burned.
Unconfirmed reports emerged from survivors of the Nusra fighters forcing villagers to convert to their brand of Islam, and there have also been claims of ancient churches being damaged.
Al-Nusra says now that it will agree to withdraw from the village if the locals agree not to allow the Syrian government to return either, though it seems that in practice that’s not a workable solution for either side, and the Christian population remains stuck in the middle.
Syria chemical weapon talks.....
Russia Presents Syria Disarmament Plan, Setting Stage for US Talks
Kerry, Lavrov to Discuss Proposal in Geneva
by Jason Ditz, September 11, 2013
Russian officials have formally presented their proposal for the disarmament of Syria’s chemical arsenal, setting the stage for talks on Thursday between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.
The plan seeks to be a counter to the French resolution presented yesterday to the United Nations Security Council, which includedan authorization to attack Syria if it fails to meet the timetable dictated. Russia has rejected the plan, noting that the disarmament process is going to be a long, complicated one.
Obama Administration officials say that agreeing on a process for the disarmament will itself take considerable time and effort, and are trying to overtly make clear that if it fails, no matter how it fails, it will be Russia’s fault somehow.
Hawkish members of Congress are also expected to be an obstacle to any deal with Russia, as Sen. John McCain (R – AZ) and others are loudly rejecting the idea of doing something instead of lobbing missiles at Syria. The reality, however, is that they don’t have the votes to start a war, and instead are going to have to try to play spoiler of the peace.
US Warns Diplomatic Solution for Syria Will Take Time
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Congress....... Support for War just not there....
Where Congress stands on Syria
Lawmakers appear to be tentatively dividing into four camps over military action in Syria. Each square represents a lawmaker who has indicated how he or she might vote, and the sentiment of the quote is mapped across the four categories. Among the lawmakers mapped below are members of leadership and several "people to watch," a category comprising influential or opinionated individuals, committee chairmen and 2016 presidential hopefuls. Read related article.
See something that needs updating? Contact Aaron Blake.
House
261against military action
25for military action
218 needed for majority
Senate
43against military action
23for military action
51 needed for majority
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